Sustainable and smartphone scannable sushi!

I love a good food concept, something that makes you enjoy eating delicious foods in a fun environment. London certainly measures up to this, hosting a wide range of restaurants that provide the diner with a unique culinary experience. Personally, I was quite enthralled with the sushi conveyor belt concept, as it gives a new spin to the meaning ‘food-on-the-go’.

Conveyor-belt themed sushi restaurants have become increasingly popular in most world cities (Photo credit: swanksalot)

Given the increasing popularity of sushi in western communities, it is yet unknown what impact this will have on selected fisheries – especially tuna, which is a key component of sushi recipes. However, I am delighted to share with everyone a piece of news that will hopefully set an example for many sushi retailers.

Moshi Moshi is Britain’s first conveyor-belt operated sushi bar, which opened its doors to the public in 1994 at the heart of Liverpool Street in London. They have recently added a rather unusual ingredient to their sushi dishes – edible QR codes.

A typical platter at Moshi Moshi, complete with wasabi, soy sauce and the edible QR code! (Photo credit: Fashion Foie Gras)

This restaurant has been long been partnered with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a leading watchdog organisation on matters concerning the provision of sustainable seafood (also instrumental for the sustainable McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish burgers which I recently wrote about). Moshi Moshi has recently (Feb 2013) celebrated the serving of their 10000^th MSC certified sushi dish, so to commemorate this milestone they took the rather odd challenge to create sushi with a built-in QR code.

Diners can then use their smartphones to scan this code, which then sends them to a webpage that indicates which sustainable fish the customer is eating and where it came from. However, one must appreciate the logistics of creating a QR code which is both incorporated into the sushi in edible form, and is clear enough to be scanned and recognized by the device.

Please watch the following video, which brilliantly chronicles the sushi chefs’ ingenious attempts at successfully creating this code. You will see anything from green tea powder, to charred-on QR codes, to squid ink. The team finally manages to come up with these codes by printing squid ink on rice paper, and binding them to the sushi with laser cut nori (seaweed).

We need more incentives like this, to allow people to enjoy their food in an informed and responsible way!

Pixar announces “Finding Dory” – at what cost?

Finding Nemo was one of those unforgettable Disney classics that won numerous accolades including the 2003 Best Animated Film Academy Award. This film was not only striking in terms of the impeccable graphical detail with which it was produced, but it also resonated with several important messages which society tries to transmit to a younger generation.

Photo credit: shanewarne_60000

As I have already mentioned in a previous post concerning crabs and The Little Mermaid, Disney is renowned for the humanization of animals in its films. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it conveys a sound message to children that these creatures merit respect and should be treated well.

However, even though Finding Nemo sought to educate the public about the consequences of harvesting and purchasing fish for decorative aquaria (the whole point of this film was to make the viewer feel ‘sad’ that Marlin the clownfish lost his son Nemo to this fate), around 99% of the World seemingly missed the plot.

After Finding Nemo became big, there was an unprecedented increasing in Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) trade for aquaria, which had a marked effect on the wildlife of the Vanuatu archipelago in the South Pacific (the Republic of Vanuatu, located around 1750 km off the eastern coast of Australia).

The Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) is naturally found living with sea anemones (Photo credit: Cybersam X)

On the 20^th of November 2003, The Guardian Newspaper reported:

“Over the past year, about 200,000 fish and other marine creatures have been exported from the country, and local tour firms are warning that the reefs will be at risk if the tropical fish trade is not regulated”

Apart from the issues associated with the collection of wild fish species, there was also considerable damage to US marine systems when people started releasing these exotic fish (since many people “logically” get bored of their pets after a couple of months) into the sea.

In 2004, a team at the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary had a string of unusual encounters with species of fish that would not normally be found there, such as a pair of orbicular batfish which are generally observed in the Pacific – but popular among aquarium owners. Reports of the predatory and highly poisonous lionfish alongside the eastern US seaboard have been made by divers and fishermen.

Orbicular Batfish (Platax orbicularis) (Photo credit: David Burdick)

With the announcement of this sequel, which will revolve around Ellen DeGeneres’ character Dory – a Regal Blue Tang (Paracanthurus hepatus), I hope that people will learn from past mistakes. While this species is listed as of ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN Redlist, the impacts on associated coral reef systems is less obvious. One has to remember that coral reefs have changed dramatically since the time the first Finding Nemo film came out.

Ten years of research on this fragile ecosystem is allowing scientist to mitigate the impacts of climate change. But, if we start harvesting such species again so that a couple of ignorant parents can amuse their children, then we really need to redress the whole scope of these films. I sincerely hope that this time round, all associated film personnel will voice some form of concern to prevent this situation from happening again.

And for the parents, please buy your children a budgey or a hamster, and teach them how to take care of them and be responsible.

FIN-ally! The first Indonesian Shark Sanctuary!

There is a general misconception about sharks, being viewed by many people as man-eating beasts of the sea. As such, the public is not generally very sympathetic about the plight of several shark species as a result of illegal fishing practices.

Sharks are generally sought after for their fins, with estimates indicating that around 30 – 80,000,000 sharks are killed on an annual basis – which means that by the time you have finished reading this paragraph, 190 sharks have already been illegally slaughtered. Conservations have estimated that many shark species will become extinct in 10 years’ time if shark finning is not banned, or at least regulated. Finning is a global issue, with Hong Kong being the hub for shark fin trading. However, one should not rush to place the blame on a singular country, seeing as 27% of shark fins originate from European sources. It should also be mentioned shark finning is one of the most inhumane practices in the world, in which the fishermen remove the fins from the shark and throw it overboard, still breathing, to die a slow painful death or be eaten alive by other fish.

An NOAA agent counting confiscated shark fins (Photo credit: NOAA)

This issue is not simply an issue pertaining to the decimation of a species, but it also involves a resonating impact on marine ecosystems. Sharks are generally apex predators in most ecosystems, keeping populations of smaller fish in check. Removing sharks from the food chain is equivalent to the removal of a keystone from an arched bridge – an eventual collapse of a complex and delicate structure.

The only way how shark finning can be curbed is by supporting initiatives that lead to governmental policy changes. Such was the result achieved on the 20^th of February 2013, when the Raja Ampat government officially announced that is declared its entire 4 million hectares of coastal and marine waters as a shark sanctuary. This title stipulates that sharks cannot be fishing in these waters; but the conservation area also protect other sensitive species such as manta rays, marine mammals, sea turtles and certain ornamental fish.

Photo credit: The Nature Conservancy

This bold move by Indonesian governments is significantly important, since the vast majority of shark fins are exported from Indonesia. It is believed that this shift in ideology is a result of the careful assessment of the worth of living sharks over dead ones, the former which benefit greatly towards growing Indonesian ecotourism ventures such as shark diving.

How is that not cool? (Photo credit: Barnaby)

This news is very exciting, and will hopefully result in a domino effect in which other governments follow suit! This is highly desired, especially when you find out that shark fins are generally harvested for shark fin soup – a traditional Chinese delicacy that only uses the tasteless shark fins in a chicken broth to absorb the taste! Seriously, this global ‘sharkicide’ is occurring so that shark fins can become a chicken flavoured component of a soup!

More info at: http://blog.nature.org/science/2013/03/07/indonesias-first-shark-sanctuary-raja-ampat-leads-the-way/

John West concedes defeat!

What’s in a can? No seriously, do you know the contents of your favourite brand of tinned tuna and whether it is providing you with an environmentally friendly product?

Photo credit: NOAA

As of 2008, Greenpeace UK have been ranking tinned tuna from leading providers across the UK according to how sustainable they are. After years of being ranked as the lowest or close to the bottom, John West have finally accepted the onslaught of criticism and are vouching to change their fishing practices.

John West tuna products have been ranked by Greenpeace UK as the least sustainable in 2008, mainly a result of their controversial use of purse-seining with fish aggregation devices (FADs) for obtaining tuna for their products. The company rejected this notion, continuing the use of this damaging method with a high bycatch impact (the unintentional capturing of non-target species) on sensitive species groups such as sea turtles, sea birds, marine mammals and sharks. It is the bycatch impacts that makes such tuna product unsustainable, and not the actual use of the fish per se. John West denied these claims, implying that the company was not bothered by the impact of their fishing methods. John west products have not made much headway since 2008, being ranked second to last in Greenpeace’s latest tables in 2011.

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Click below for the 2011 Greenpeace Tuna League Table:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/tunaleaguetable

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Thankfully, the company announced a joint sustainable sourcing programme alongside Greenpeace in July 2011. The main aim of this programme will see 100 per cent of its tuna products sold in the UK to be obtained using sustainable pole and line technique by 2016, pledging to remove any fishing fleets that utilize FADs. John West described this target as “challenging”, with five year plan aimed at achieving this 100 per cent target (starting at 25 per cent by the end of 2012, 35 per cent by 2013, 50 per cent by 2014, and 100 per cent by 2016). Such a change in administration is well received by critics, seeing as John West is the leading supplier of tinned fishery products. This would hopefully also set the bar for competing British brands to keep maintaining their current standards.

In December of 2012, the company announced that it would phase out FADs by the end of 2015, bringing it one step closer to its sustainability goals. This increased commitment by John West has been heralded as a victory by Australians, when 20,000 individuals warned the company that they would stop buying its products if the company did not change its ways.

A tuna ensnared in fishing nets (Photo credit: Danilo Cedrone)

At the end of the day, such an accomplishment not only represents a win for ocean fisheries and sensitive species, but also a win for consumers that are becoming increasingly more environmentally conscious. We can now continue enjoying tinned tuna, knowing that other marine species are not being compromised.

Exploding Fish?

Some people apparently get a blast from fishing…

Fishing is an important activity that several people living in coastal communities require for their subsistence. Given the fact that the demand for fish is ever increasing, even in developing countries, fishermen end up resorting to rather intriguing methods of collecting fish. One of these methods is called dynamite fishing or blast fishing, in which the fisherman uses dynamite sticks or similar explosives.

Photo credit: Craig Allen

Full article can be found at Frontier’s Gap Year Blog:

http://gapyearblog.org.uk/science-club/2013/1/25/exploding-fish.html

Nature Wrestling Ring – Great White Shark vs Crocodile

There is something to be said about fierce predators such as great white sharks and crocodiles, equally formidable in their respective habitats…but have you ever wondered you would win in a showdown between these two?

A recent news article involving the discovery of a decapitated crocodile head on a beach in St. Lucia, South Africa has gone viral. The victim, which appears to be a Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus), may have met its match at the hands (or fins) of a Great White Shark. Both these animals are both known as formidable predators, and it is only natural that people are curious about which one would win in a fight between the other.

Imagine finding this on a beach stroll… : Daily Mail 13th January 2013

Full article can be found at Frontier’s Gap Year Blog:

http://gapyearblog.org.uk/science-club/2013/1/16/nature-wrestling-ring-great-white-shark-vs-crocodile.html